The calendar read Oct. 1, and Ohio's once-promising season suddenly had reached a crisis state.
After a 2-0 start that included a win at MAC favorite Northern Illinois, Ohio dropped three straight games. Two of the losses came against eventual Top 25 teams (Rutgers and Missouri). The other was tougher to digest, a 21-9 spanking by Bowling Green at home.
But Ohio's on-field failure hardly compared to the public relations flogging it took after The Columbus Dispatch revealed that 17 football players had been arrested in Athens County since Jan. 1.